The article comprises an introduction to and an edition and translation of an Old Swedish sermon fragment found in the Hannaas Collection at the Ethno-Folkloristic Archive, University of Bergen, Norway (Hannaas 66). This previously unpublished paper fragment is one of the missing parts of the Old Swedish Homily Book (known as Svensk järteckens postilla), dating from the second half of the fifteenth century and now housed at the Royal Library in Stockholm, Sweden (Cod. Holm. A 111). The text in Hannaas 66 comprises a sermon for the 8th Sunday after Trinity based on Matthew 7. 15–16 and includes a miracle exemplum that illustrates the importance of acting justly and following the will of God.

The Danish National Archives in Copenhagen houses several thousand manuscript fragments, the remains of numerous works that were cut up and used in the bindings of later books. The majority of these fragments are written in Latin, Middle Low German, or Danish, although a few in Old Swedish also survive. Five of these Old Swedish fragments are published and discussed in this article. They contain parts of two of St Birgitta’s Revelations (Liber Caelestis) and of St Bernard’s A Rule of Good Life (Ad sororem modus bene vivendi in christianam religionem), known in Old Swedish as Ett gudhelikt lifwærne. The Birgittine texts are from an early stage of the retranslation process when compared to other extant versions and include several unique wordings that demonstrate the specific use of the original manuscript in a monastic environment. The Bernard fragments are one of just two extant versions and appear to predate the version in Stockholm, Royal Library, A 9; as such, they are an important witness to the propagation of the saint’s writings in Sweden.

7.

Adams, Jonathan

Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Languages, Department of Scandinavian Languages.

The Danish National Archives in Copenhagen houses several thousand manuscript fragments, the remains of numerous works that were cut up and used in the bindings of later books. The majority of these fragments are written in Latin, Middle Low German, or Danish, although a few in Old Swedish also survive. Five of these Old Swedish fragments are published and discussed in this article. They contain parts of two of St Birgitta’s Revelations (Liber Caelestis and Revelationes Extravagantes) and of St Bernard’s A Rule of Good Life (Ad sororem modus bene vivendi in christianam religionem). The Birgittine texts are from an early stage of the retranslation process when compared to other extant versions and include several unique wordings that demonstrate the specific use of the original manuscript in a monastic environment. The Bernard fragments are one of just two extant versions and may predate the version in Stockholm, Royal Library, A 9; as such, they are an important witness to the propagation of the saint’s writings in Sweden.

The article examines the portrayal of Jews in medieval texts written in Danish before 1515. It begins by describing the theological basis for and creation of a ‘fantasy Jew’. The perception of Jews was fundamentally shaped by the idea that they had tortured and killed the Christian messiah. Devotional texts, sermons and Passion stories which describe the Jews as Christ killers are therefore discussed in detail, and the image of the deicide Jew in vernacular texts is shown to be malleable and changing. The image of the violent Jew who tortured and killed Jesus was used to arouse empathy among readers and to chastise them for being too like the Jews by behaving sinfully. Other Jewish ‘types’ that occur in the material are also investigated: effeminate, Satanic and usurious Jews as well as comparisons with animals. The preliminary results of an investigation into the type of language that was used to shape the image of Jews show that certain ‘negative’ words were used disproportionately more frequently in descriptions of Jews than of non-Jews. This suggests a powerful association between such words and the perception of Jews — a connection that was supported and further enhanced through religious art and theatre. The article concludes by noting what is missing in the extant material and what this might tell us about medieval Danish attitudes towards Jews.

Between the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, there was a noticeable change in relations between Scandinavia and the Islamic world – the sources point to a shift from travel and trade to hostility and war. Muslims did not settle in the North until the eighteenth century, and during the Middle Ages there was little contact between Scandinavians and ‘real’ Muslims. So how did Danes and Swedes imagine and describe this Other? Is there anything unusual or unexpected about the portrayal of Muslims? How does this image compare to that of the other great religious opponent, the Jew? By investigating East Norse devotional texts, travel literature, saints’ lives, romances and accounts of Ottoman warfare, this paper aims to draw out some of the major themes in medieval Scandinavian descriptions of Muslims and Islam.

30.

Adams, Jonathan

Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Languages, Department of Scandinavian Languages.

Jews were not permitted to settle in Scandinavia until the modern era (Denmark 1622, Sweden 1718) and Muslims did not arrive in significant numbers until the late twentieth century. Yet despite the fact that there was no resident population, Muslims and, in particular, Jews can be found in many different literary genres (including sermons) and works of art (including wall-paintings, altar pieces and sculptures). These two non-Christian groups in medieval Scandinavia are thus an example of what Gloria Cigman with regard to England has called “absent-presence”, although in Denmark and Sweden they were not a memory or continuation from a pre-expulsion era but rather manifestations of the imagination that drew upon pre-existing classical and foreign traditions.

This paper surveys the extant vernacular sermon material from medieval Denmark and Sweden that mentions Muslims and Jews and attempts to categorise the different types and uses of the representations. As the extant corpus of sermon material from medieval Denmark and Sweden is rather small, I shall look briefly at the saints’ lives and legends that were often used to fashion exempla in sermons. The paper will also consider the rich treasury of wall paintings and how these pictures reinforced the ideas about Jews propagated in sermons. (There are no unequivocal images of Muslims, Saracens or Turks in medieval Danish and Swedish wall paintings.)

Finally, the paper will attempt to trace the Scandinavian imagery and influences back to ‘continental’ Europe and uncover what sorts of ideas about Muslims and Jews were useful enough to Scandinavians to survive the long journey north.

The image of the Jews as the killers of Jesus has its origins in the Gospels where Jews are portrayed as responsible – directly or indirectly – for the Crucifixion. The enduring myth of the Christ-killer has evolved over nearly two millennia to find a variety of expressions in religion, politics, philosophy, literature and drama. In this article, I examine how Jews are portrayed as murderers in late medieval descriptions of the Passion found in Old Danish sermons and devotional literature. The influence of the saints Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas and Birgitta of Sweden is examined as also is the question of Jewish culpability in each of the texts and what this would have meant to the audience and readers. The Christkiller motif is shown to be an effective and flexible tool for the Church in marking the boundaries of vita christiana and in teaching empathy and spirituality to its members.

Published in 1516, Poul Ræff's Iudeorum Secreta, a translation of Johannes Pfefferkorn's The Conlession of the Jews, was a landmark in the development of anti-Jewish polemics in Denmark.

For the first time, Danes were presented with descriptions of Jewish ceremonies that aimed to portray these practices as dangerously anti-Christian, superstitious and deviating from 'real' Biblical Judaism. Contemporary Judaism is described as a rabbinical construction that is worthy of nothing but ridicule and mockery. Lessons in Contempt explores this key text that comprises a valuable source for a range of academic disciplines: the history of antisemitism, the study of Jewish-Christian relations, social history, the history of religious culture, and medieval and early modern Danish language and literature.

This book includes an outline of how Jews were portrayed in medieval Danish vernacular literature; a description of Pfefferkorn's life and works; a discussion of Ræff's translation and publication of Iudeorum Secreta; a presentation of the language and style of the Danish version, as well as an edition of the text together with the Latin original, an English translation and an extensive commentary.

In this paper, I talk about the lives of the Prophet Muhammad found in vernacular saints’ lives (Old Swedish Legendary), devotional works (Consolation of the Soul), and travel descriptions (John Mandeville) from fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Denmark and Sweden. The paper focuses on stories about how Muhammad deceived people into believing that he was a Prophet using tricks, natural phenomena, and his alleged medical condition: trained animals to appear to worship him, used magnets to create a floating coffin, and epilepsy to give the impression of divine ecstasy.

These lives of Muhammad are adaptations of works in Latin and German, while their presentation of Muhammad as a false prophet is traceable to Byzantine polemical authors, such as John of Damascus. The East Norse portrayal of Muhammad as a trickster owes a debt of gratitude to Gautier de Compiègne’s Otia de Machometi (before 1150). However, rather than the East Norse lives of Muhammad being free-standing works, they are found as integrated sections in collections of devotional and didactic works aimed at teaching and nurturing Christian piety in their readers. This is perhaps an unexpected textual context: why, for example, would a false Prophet be found in a collection of Christian saints’ lives? When the Qur’ān attributes no miracles to the Muhammad whatsoever, what is the reason for these Christian writers to do so and then to set about exposing them as false? Hermeneutical argumentation and strawman-polemics are key to understanding the purpose of “Muhammad’s miracles” among a readership that had little, if any, chance of ever coming into contact with Islam.

47.

Adams, Jonathan

Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Languages, Department of Scandinavian Languages.